Re: Napster destroys Western Civilization

On Tue, 16 May 2000, Robert Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
>
> those rights by benefit of law. Rather, we enacted our
> Constitution and its several amendments in part to ensure that
> the law would do nothing to impair those rights.
>
> I don't know whether 9Ball is an American or not, but I encourage
> him to read carefully the Bill of Rights. I am continually amazed
> at how many Americans are unaware that our Constitution is a grant
> of rights from the people to the government, not the other way
> around.

    One thing I am curious about is, how often has the 9th amendment (or the 10th) been invoked in court to defend civil liberties of individuals (as opposed to the States) that aren't otherwise enumerated in the US Constitution?

    Personally I see a "right to copy" as a part of a general principle whereby acts of an individual that don't deny or otherwise interfere with other's rights are, um, rights (or part of the right to liberty, in a sense). The only real argument I see for copyright as a moral right has nothing to do with money or a right to earn a living, but is that the produced art/writing is really a piece of the creator secreted into the physical world. But in the US we don't go for such extensions of the self (at least not as I understand it).

Lynn

Lynn Winebarger
<owinebar[_at_]free-expression.org> Received on Wed May 17 2000 - 20:54:28 GMT